Growing up weak and whimpy in a Vault
by HyenaAA
Summary: Down in Vault 101, things have gone a little sour. How will Joey comprehend his new intense job in a slowly hostile-turning environment?
1. Chapter 1

Life in a Vault.

Prologue Sorry if this page is a little long.

Joey crawled on the floor. He was a baby. Noe one was in the room. Up ahead, he saw a book. He was too young to read the book, but he could turn through the pages. Eventually he came to the last page, and there was a large chart with letters on one side and numbers on the other. It read:

S : 5

P : 5

E : 5

C : 5

I : 5

A : 5

L : 4

Ten years later , Joey got his first pip-boy and his first work assignment. He then proceeded to fake a sickness, irritating Liam Neeson immensely and slowly ostracising himself from the rest of the vault.

Chapter 1 G.O.A.T. EXAM

"Joey you're perfectly fine, can you stop trying to fake illnesses and take your exam like everyone else?" asked Liam Neeson, clearly frustrated.

"But I think I'm really sick this time, uh… cough cough" said Joey, pathetically trying to fake an illness.

"Joey, I know you're faking it, please leave and go take your G.O.A.T, I need to speak to Jonas"

Joey left the office disheartened.

He passed Jonas on the way out, who avoided looking at him. Earlier in the week he had spilled coffee on a pile of Jonas's notes, and Joey refused to apologise.

He walked slowly towards the class, trying to take up as much time between now and writing the G.O.A.T.

He saw Amata up ahead.

"Hey Amata" he said.

"Hi Joey" she said uncomfortably.

"How's it going?" He asked , resting his hand against the wall beside her.

"Its alright" She said, taking half a step away from Joey.

"Hey Amata! Get over here **[SEXIST REMARK]!"**

It was the Tunnel snakes!

They came around the corner, riding tricycles. Butch DeLoria , Wally Mack and Token!

"Butch, leave me alone!" Amata cried out, covering her face, frozen to the spot where she stood.

"Watch it Joey Whimp face!" Butch called out. He rode by on his Tricycle and hit Joey in the knee with a club.

Joey fell to the floor in pain. "ARGH! My knee!"

Butch and the tunnel snakes laughed and rode their tricycles around Joey.

"Ha Ha Ha! We got you Joey Whimp face!" Wally Mack shouted. Token kicked Joey as he rode around him. Butch laughed.

"Butch ,Leave him alone! My Dad's the overseer! He can get you for this!" Amata cried out.

Butch laughed again. "Hey Amata, Let me show you a REAL Tunnel Snake!" He sneered.

"EWWWW" She cried. She ran down the hall to the classroom.

The tunnel Snakes rode after her into the classroom.

Joey got up on his knees. His knee really hurt.

"Dang it! Why can't I stand up to him"

Just then, he felt a helping hand on his shoulder. It was Officer Gomez!

He helped Joey up. "Thanks" Joey muttered.

"Listen Son, you can't let those boys push you around, you're almost a man now"

"I know, I know" Joey said.

"Alright ,just saying" Officer Gomez replied. He left.

Joey began to limp down the hallway. He was not a tough kid, and wasn't very bright. There was nothing really good about him. He had no special unknown skills or magic powers. He was just a socially awkward guy.

He eventually made it to the class.

"Joey, finnaly you've arrived, please take your seat so we may begin" Mr Brotch said, frustrated with is late arrival.

"Do I have to take the test, ?"

"Yes, everyone has to, no one gets around it for free, and remember, there's no right or wrong answer, it just affects how your life happens."

walked to the front and began questioning the class.

Joey filled out the answers without looking at the questions.


	2. Chapter 2

Life in a Vault chapter 2.

Eventually the class finished the G.O.A.T exam. Joey was slowly drifting off to sleep.

began calling students up. Joey walked over just as Butch was getting his results.

"Well, Butch, looks like your G.O.A.T results say you're most likely to be a hairdresser!"

"What! No man, I'm a barber!"

laughed. "Keep thinking that, kid"

Butch walked away grumbling "I'll slit your throat…"

He bumped into Joey on his way out, hurting Joey's arm.

"Butch watch it!" Joey said. Butch laughed. He walked over to this friends and they mounted up on their Tricycles and rode away laughing.

"Well , Joey , lets see your G.O.A.T answers" said with a sigh.

Joey handed him his papers. looked at them. His expression changed to a state of confusion. He tensed up.

"Well, Joey, looks like you are going to be the vaults next hydration and power maintenance engineer"

"Alright!, What's that?" Joey asked.

"Well, you will be working with Isaac, and… uh… well, this can't be right" said, nervously.

"Well I did my G.O.A.T , give me my career!" Joey said.

"Alright Joey, uh… go and meet Isaac later, I guess" He said, very worried.

Joey left the classroom, feeling a little happy. It seemed like things were getting a little better. He began to walk with confidence down the hallway, until he heard "Hey look! Its Whimpy Whimp Joey!"

The tunnel Snakes rode by on their tricycles. Wally Mack hit Joey in the back of the leg and he fell down. They rode by laughing at him.

Joey met Jonas in the engineering hydration maintenance engine room the next day.

"So… Joey, I guess you're my new assistant" Jonas said, clearly in miss belief.

"Yup, that's right!" Joey said.

"Well ,I guess I better show you around, now, this is very important that you don't make any mistakes and you learn really fast what you are suppose to do, alright?" Jonas asked in a concerned voice.

Joey nodded. "Ok, well let me show you all the rooms" Jonas led Joey through a series of rooms full of large machines. He showed him the Hydration room where the water was kept clean . He showed him the electrical room, which controlled power output. He showed him the oxygen filtration system, which if malfunctioned, could be a danger to the entire vault.

"Now, you need to know that none of these can be tampered with, they have to be kept the same or else terrible things could happen to the vault" Jonas said.

"Yes sir" Joey replied. "I've always asked for more workers down here, but there's just not enough people that know how this place works other than me , Liam Neeson, Floyd Lewis and Stanley, and Stanley's headaches make it really difficult for him to work, the overseer just doesn't know how important this place is" said Jonas.

Joey did not listen.

"Well alright then, You're going to be working with me, because it will take a good 8 years before you know how to work any of this stuff on your own, but it's a good thing I'll be around for the next 8 years to help you learn, and James will always be around to help teach you" Jonas said.

"Sure, whatever" Joey said.

And so began Joey's career in vault 101.


	3. Chapter 3

Life in a Vault Chapter 3.

Three years had passed. Joey was asleep. He was dreaming.

First ,he dreamed he was inside the hydration room, Jonas was complaining at him for using the water purifier as a toilet. Joey said it was a funny joke, but Jonas did not think so. Jonas opened up the purifier so that water filled the room. Jonas walked away to go help Liam Neeson in the hospital, leaving Joey to drown in the room. Luckily, Stanley walked in and flipped a switch, causing the water to disappear.

Joey tried to thank him, but Stanley started complaining about his headache. His head swelled up and he floated away into a vent. Joey left the room and found Floyd Lewis dead on the ground. Joey picked up Floyd Lewis by his head, bringing him back to life. Floyd Lewis looked at him and said nothing.

The Dream changed.

Joey was in his bedroom alone with Amata. He was in his bed. She was standing above him, looking down on him.

"Joey, I want your pant snake in my tunnel" She said.

"Well Amata, that's just fine for me" He said.

"Well, first you just have to… wake up" She said.

"What?" He asked. She opened her mouth and a loud noise came out, like an alarm.

The lights in the room started flashing. "What… what is this?" He shouted.

He woke up with a start. He was alone in his room. He heard an alarm. The vault alarm was ringing!

A voice called on the intercom… "All members of vault 101 please remain in your rooms while the rad roach infestation is dealt with" .

"Well, you don't have to tell me trice" Joey said. He pulled opened the circuitry box next to his door and cut off the power to the alarm in his room. He knew he shouldn't , but it was just so convenient. Jonas had showed him a lot of convenient tricks over the last three years. He wondered what Jonas would show him next. He went back to bed.

The next day, there was an emergency vault meeting. Everyone in the vault had to meet in the hall.

The overseer stepped up on a podium to talk to everyone.

"Yesterday, we had a huge tragedy occur in the vault, what you may believe to be a common reproach outbreak was a dangerous terrorist plot caused by dangers to this vault in an attempt to leave. Liam Neeson and his son, The Lone Wanderer, have escaped the vault after murdering several members of our community. Agnes Taylor was found dead due to a heart attack, and we have suspensions that several vault tec security were killed trying to stop the lone wanderer, and Tom and Mary Holden were also killed in the crossfire. Another casualty was Floyd Lewis and Jonas, who were both murdered by Liam Neeson, let us have a moment of silence for these poor individuals"

The speech continued like this for about twenty minutes. Afterwards, the vault overseer called over Joey and Stanley.

"Well, since you two are the last engineers left, you are know in full charge of the Engineering, Hydration, oxygen and electrical output section of the vault." The overseer said.

Stanley and Joey nodded.

"Don't mess up" He said.

Stanley and Joey walked away. They passed small groups of other vault members who were in shock of the events and did not know how to react. They passed Amata in the hallway, who looked very frightened and ran by Joey, not noticing him. They walked by Officer Gomez, who was trying to calm Officer Taylor, who had lost his wife.

Joey noticed Butch huddled in the corner, crying. His mother had been killed during the reproach infestation. Joey felt himself begin to smirk, but stopped at the last moment.

Him and Stanley soon arrived at the maintenance room, and began to work.


	4. Chapter 4

LIFE IN A VAULT CHAPTER 4

The next week, life in vault 101 became very hectic. Wally Mack gave up on the tunnel snakes and became a security officer with his dad. Butch became a depressed alcoholic, crying in his room all day.

The tunnel snakes seemed to be done for. Without Liam Neeson, most people became very sick after mixing up their meds. Stanley got progressively worse and worse at his job, and gave Joey more and more responsibilities. Joey worked hard in the engineering technical room, but plenty of problems were beginning to crop up. When the vault water pump pipes were losing pressure, he had to duct tape them until Stanley could fix them.

One day he was walking to the technician room. Out of a shadowy hallway, two men on tricycles rode by.

They hit Joey in the back of the leg.

"GOD DANGIT OW!" Joey shouted, falling to the floor. The two attackers got off their tricycles. It was Butch and Wally Mack.

"Haha , look at whimpy whimp Joey!" Wally Mack said.

"What a foop" Butch shouted. Butch kicked him in the ribs. He then stumbled and almost fell over.

"Butch you're drunk!" Wally shouted.

"Shut up!" Butch yelled back. He began to cry. "That's what my mom used to say"

"Butch calm down! It's alright man!" Wally shouted back.

Butch wouldn't listen , he hopped on to his tricycle and rode away.

"Look what you did!" Wally shouted at Joey. He kicked Joey in the ribs and rode off after Butch.

Joey eventually reached the technician room. Stanley was sitting on the floor, rubbing his head.

"Joey, I'm feeling really awful, I gotta take the hour off" Stanley left the room. On his way out, he patted Joey on the back. This caused a huge amount of pain in Joey's bruised ribs. Stanley did not notice.

Joey walked up to the electrical output machine. All the knobs and dials seemed to be in proper output mode. He walked over to the power supplier. Every room was getting just the right amount.

He checked the air pressurizer and water directional box. Everything was in place.

Just then, Officer Gomez walked in. "Hey Joey!" he said.

Joey looked at him for a moment and then went back to his work.

"Oh shoot, did Wally and Butch get at you again?, sorry man, I wish I could have helped"

Joey grunted in reply.

"I'll talk to the overseer about it, he might listen to my this time"

Joey grunted in reply again, pretending to be busy.

"Well, its good you take it well, you leave the fighting back to the security! We'll find a way to deal with them" Officer Gomez said.

"Wally Mack is a security guard!" Joey shouted, angrily.

"Oh … right, well ,we can take away his privileges or something, you hang in there Joey"

Officer Gomez left. Joey felt very annoyed_. If only there was some way he could fight back against them._

Just then he noticed the computer panel beside the air pressurizer. He could do something!

He went over and signed in. He looked through the output options. There was an option.

He set the options for direct output on the air pressurizer. He could control what sort of oxygen Wally Mack got. He looked around the room. No one was there. As stealthily as he could, he flipped off the oxygen, pooped into the air filtration box, and sent the air to Wally Mack's house. He noticed he could do the same with the water supply for Wally Mack. He switched the water directional box to the channel that connected to Wally's vault rooms. And just as before, he peed into the water directed for Wally's kitchen. He laughed out loud._ Looks like Wally Macks family will have some house problems._

_He looked at the electrical output box. There must be some way he could get back at Butch…. There was!_

_He went over to the output options, and shut down all the lights in Butch's home. _

_Joey laughed outloud. Stupid Butch! He thought. _

_He might not have beat up his bullies, but he could make their lives a living hell!_


	5. Chapter 5

GROWING UP IN A VAULT CHAPTER 5

The next week, The overseer died from heart complications. With Liam Neeson gone, the vault dwellers had to make the Andy the robot into the doctor. Andy had no clear idea what he was doing and gave the overseer multiple pills for an undiagnosed condition. Afterwards, Beatrice Armstrong showed up to the clinic with a sprained toe, which led to Andy having to amputate the entire leg, leading to her death.

Token, AKA Paul Hannon , the only African American member of the Tunnel Snakes, was found dead in a corner somewhere. Andy figured that he had died at least a few weeks ago, during the radroach outbreak, and because Liam Neeson wasn't around, he died.

With the old overseer dead, Allen Mack was promoted to overseer. His first unofficial act was sending Wally Mack to figure out the problem with that goddamned smell in their apartment.

Joey was working hard, or hardly working on some god awful puns in the engineering room.

One of the machines began to beep and a red light started flashing.

"Oh no!" Joey shouted and ran over to the piece of machinery. He looked at it. It said something about core temperature over reacting or water pressure invalid. Joey had no honest idea. He had forgotten how to do a lot of maintenance work and Stanley's condition had made it impossible for him to get help.

The beeping noise became louder and faster. Something was seriously wrong. Joey flipped the off switch.

It continued to beep. The red light continued to flash. Joey scratched his head, wondering what to do.

He thought for a second… then "OBVOUSLY! Duh, derp moment!" He said to no one in particular.

He opened up one of the panels and short circuited the beeping noise and disconnected the power to the flashing light. "Situation averted!" he said to himself smugly.

Just then ,the door opened.

"Hey Butthead!" IT was Wally Mack.

Joey turned around. His smug expression disappeared quickly.

"What do you want?" He asked meekly.

"What is that smell in my goddamned apartment and why wont it go away! It smells like **[Fecal Matter]**

In there!" Wally Mack shouted.

"I don't know what that smell is , Wally" Joey said, stepping behind some equipment.

"Don't Hide from me you whimp! We know the problem is in air conditioning and that's your department!"

"Well , I don't know how it works Wally, I never had full training!" Joey shouted from behind some sort of electrical box thing.

"I'm going to get you fired then!" Wally shouted.

"You cant do that Wally!, Stanley's condition makes it impossible to teach people and I'm the next smartest person that knows how this stuff works!" Joey cried out.

"I'm going to beat the **[explicit] **out of you!" Wally shouted. Wally Mack grabbed Joey and pulled him out from behind the electrical box thing. He threw him to the floor.

"You're dead now!" Wally kicked Joey in the ribs. Joey cried out in pain. Wally kicked him again.

"NOoOoOoOo! Leave me alone!" Joey cried out.

Wally Laughed.

"Stop right there!" Wally and Joey looked up at the doorway. Officer Gomez was there, holding a lunch bag. "Wally Stop! This is your last chance! You'll be fired for this!" Officer Gomez threatened.

"You can't fire me! My dad's the overseer!" Wally Mack shouted.

"Oh… shoot, you're right… well…. Uh …. Come on Wally… give the guy a break" Officer Gomez said, clearly defeated.

Wally laughed and stopped kicking Joey.

"See you around Joey!" Wally Mack left the room. On his way out he knocked the lunch out of officer Gomez's hand and stomped on it.

"Sorry about him Joey, don't worry though, we'll find a way to get him" Officer Gomez said.

"Oh, and …uh , I brought you a lunch, but he just messed it up …so… uh… see you later" Officer Gomez left the room awkwardly.

Joey got up and sighed, massaging his ribs.

"I hate this place" He said.


	6. Chapter 6

LIFE IN A VAULT CHAPTER 6

The next day, Amata visited Joey while he was working. He was glad for this. He sort of liked Amata and they had been great friends throughout their childhood.

"Hey Amata" He said as she walked in.

"Hey Joey! How's it going" She said back. She seemed to be indifferent to her fathers death.

"So how's being an orphan?" Joey said jokingly.

Amata stared at him. "Excuse me" she said. Her eyes began to water.

"Sorry! Sorry!, It was just a joke, you seemed to be indiffer-" Joey began, but Amata cut him off.

"how could you say that! My Father is DEAD! I have no parents! I… I… I just don't" She began to cry.

"Sorry! I'm sorry! Please, I didn't mean that, its just we're friends and …uh… I'm sorry" Joey pleaded.

Amata seemed to stop herself from crying. She looked at him.

"Sorry for freaking out Joey, I , I'm just going through a lot of stuff right now" She said.

"Alright, its understandable" He said, wiping his slowly starting to sweat brow.

She glared at him.

"what do you mean its understandable! You have no idea what I'm going through right now!" She shouted.

"That's not what I meant! I'm sorry!" Joey pleaded back. He was beginning to sweat.

"You don't understand anything, Joey, you just always apologise" She said.

They stared at each other awkwardly for a minute.

Why is she so angry at me? Joey thought. We used to be such good friend!

Why did I come here to visit this creep? Amata thought. Its not like we were good friends, I guess its because he's all I got left.

Joey looked around and began fiddling with one of the hydration output boxes. Amata stood there, watching him. He felt uncomfortable. Amata began to talk again.

"I just feel so bad for Butch, you know? He lost his mother in the radroach attack, and his house lost power and he had to move into temporary housing, and Allen Mack might kick him out of it as part of his plan to remove all of my fathers orders"

Joey turned around, shocked. "You feel bad for BUTCH? He's an **[Donkey's Anus] **and has always treated you like **[fecal matter]**, How can you feel bad for someone like that!"

"You don't understand him Joey, He had a rough life growing up!"

"I had a rough life! He constantly bullied me with his stupid gang!" Joey pleaded back.

"Yeah, but his gang is done now! He's all alone and he was only a bully because he was bullied at home! And me and him both have no parents now!"

"Amata, what the hell! Why are you doing this!"

"You don't understand, Joey!" amata screamed, and she ran out of the room.

Joey swore in anger. He spun around and saw the electrical output box. He saw the power dial to the temporary housing units. Time for revenge, He thought.

Butch said in his temporary housing room, alone. He was drunk. Around him were empty beer and vodka bottles. Beside him, he had his trusty Tricycle. He shook back and forth. He had nothing to do and the overseer might kick him out of his temporary housing unit. And Wally Mack kept avoiding him. He couldn't do anything anymore. Life wasn't worth living. Just then, the lights began to flicker. He looked up in fear. The lights shut off. Everything in his room shut off. The power was out… Again!

"NOoOoOoOoOoOo" He cried out. In fear of the dark, he hopped onto his tricycle. Somewhere he heard a voice, his mother's voice telling him he was a bad little waste of space drip baby with no meaning or future.

His mother would lock him in a dark closet when he was younger. And now she was haunting him!

"I can't take it anymore!" Butch shouted in the dark. He kicked his tricycle into gear and rolled out of his room into the hall. He sped down the hall. He just about hit someone who jumped out of the way at the last moment. "Slow down!" The person shouted, but it was too late. Butch sped up faster, his tricycle was out of control! Up ahead was a corner. It was coming too fast!

He swerved at the last moment. His tricycle fell on its side and crushed his leg. It slid into the wall, sparks shooting out and leaving a huge mark in the ground. Butch screamed. Everything was going in slow motion!

He saw the wall, his tricycle sliding towards it, each second felt like a minute. He could not stop. His leg was crushed under the tricycle weight and skinned against the ground. The tricycle hit the wall. It was crushed between Butch's weight and the concrete vault wall. Pieces of the tricycle were pushed straight into Butch's chest, impaling him. He put his hands up. He was still going in slow motion and still screaming.

His hand hit the wall and broke instantly, his arm crashing and cracking into it, also breaking. Butch's face hit the wall next. His smooth Greaser like facial features were destroyed and spread over the concrete.

Butch body finally crumbled into the wall. The force of his impact left him splattered and spread out on the concrete, like a fly on a windshield. Butch was dead.

Amata screamed and ran over to him. She fell to her knees and broke into uncontrollable tears and sobs.

A small crowd soon arrived to look at the damage. No one touched Amata or the remains of Butch.

No one wondered why Butch had done it. They all knew he rode drunk, and it was only a matter of time before something would happen. No one investigated why Butch's room was pitch black from a small power outage.


	7. Chapter 7

LIFE IN A VAULT CHAPTER 7

Vault 101 had fallen on rough times. Alcohol consumption had increased at least 300%. The new overseer did not care enough to stop this, he had better things to focus on. Small rolling blackouts would occur in different rooms and sections of the vault. Stanley and Joey worked hard to solve the problem but the only cause they could find was equipment failure. This concerned Stanley greatly.

"I don't understand why everything is falling about, the only way these damages could occur would be if someone was actually manually tampering with the output switches" He said.

"Well , I… uh… I didn't do it" Said Joey.

"At this rate, the vault will become unsuitable for its population" said Stanley, worried.

"What do you mean , unsuitable?" Asked Joey.

"Well, even with constant maintenance, a lot of people would die off from different technical causes, like bad air filtration, or fuse box overloads, or unclean water" explained Stanley.

"What if there were way less people in the vault?" Asked Joey, imagining a vault with no Wally Mack.

"It would be terrible, all the dead bodies would have to be cleaned up, and there would be diseases from bad sanitation, at this rate, if we don't fix it or evacuate, the whole vault could be doomed." Stanley explained, nervously. Stanley began to rub his head, he was starting to feel dizzy.

"What do you mean by evacuate? Like when Liam Neeson left?" Joey asked with excitement.

"Well, no, this would be a totally necessary evacuation, but the only way it could happen was if the water chip broke"

Down the hallway, a fuse box emitted several sparks. It smoked a little afterwards.

"Shoot! Joey, I gotta fix that fuse box, you stay here." Stanley ran over to the fuse box and opened it up.

Joey stood there awkwardly, not sure what to do.

Stanley called out to him from down the hall "I need you to transfer power to fuse box KUT-11!"

Joey walked over to the electrical output and diverted some power to the fuse box. The machine hummed a little. Maybe he didn't send enough power.

Over by Stanley, the fuse box functioning light flashed on again. Stanley began to flip the safety switches off. Joey looked over at Stanley. I must have not put enough power in, he thought to himself.

Joey raised the power output going to the fuse box. He sent twice as much this time, just to be safe.

Stanley flipped off the safety switch. Their didn't seem to be any permanent damage done to the fuse box.

Just then, the red danger light flashed on.

"What the-" The overload light began to flash very quickly. The inside of the fuse box began to smoke, and then exploded with a bunch of sparks. Stanley was blasted and electrified against the wall. His hand holding onto the wiring in the fuse box remained there, disconnected from his body.

Joey looked up. The lights in the hallway and engineering room went out. Red backup lights turned on in the engineering room. The outside hallway remained black.

"Stanley?" Joey called. "Stanley! Stanley, you out there?"

Joey grabbed the **EMERGENCY VAULT TECHNICIAN HANDY FLASHLIGHT** and shone it down the hall. He walked slowly and eventually reached Stanley. He shined the light on him. Stanley's face was incredibly burned. His arm was missing a hand. His clothing was blackened.

"Stanley?" Joey asked.

Stanley was dead.

Officer Gomez stood in the overseer office. Overseer Allen Mack looked at him. Two vault-tec security guard stood by the door. Wally Mack sat in a chair in the corner, smiling smugly.

"Officer Gomez, I'm afraid that you are suspended from Vault-tec security service, please hand over your badge"

Officer Gomez stood in silence. "Please hand over your badge, Gomez"

"But… sir… I have a wife and a child, how will I help them… I've been on the force for twenty years.. You can't do this!, My son has depression! How can you do this too me!"

"Please, Gomez, don't turn this into a scene" The overseer said. Wally Mack laughed.

Just then, the power went out.

"What the hell!" shouted the overseer.

The power came back on quickly.

"**[PROFANITY]**, I hate that Joey guy, why can't him and Stanley do things right!"

Officer Gomez was escorted out by the two vault-tec security guards.

"Son" said Allen Mack.

"Yeah Dad" Wally replied.

"I want you to rough up Joey's apartment, as a warning that he start doing things right"

"Sure thing, Dad" Wally said, leaving the room.


	8. Chapter 8

LIFE IN A VAULT CHAPTER 8

Stanley's body was eventually taken to the morgue. When Joey arrived at his apartment, he found the entire room had been trashed. Pillows had been cut opened, his few books had been torn apart , his mattress had been slashed. Anything that a knife could slash in a tough manner was slashed. There was also a note on the floor. It read "FIX THE POWER OR WE'LL KILL YOU". Joey wondered who it could be from.

It did not matter. Joey hated the people in this vault, and now he had a plan.

The next day at 1:30 PM (according to his pip-boy), Joey approached the water chip. He opened up the control panel and looked through the controls. He knew that each water chip had one unnecessary wire, that if cut, would show up on the vault computers as broken. This would cause an evacuation, but really , the wire was useless and he could easily shut down the alarm… after everyone had left.

He found the wire. Just then the door opened.

Joey turned around, nervously. Ex-officer Gomez walked into the room. His shirt was dirty, and he had not shaved. In one hand was an empty vodka bottle.

"Gomez?" Joey asked.

"Shut up ,JOEY! You don't know anything! You don't know what I've gone through! My whole life has been thrown down the drain! You will never know my pain!" Ex-Officer Gomez began to cry a little.

"Gomez! Calm down! I'm trying to work!"

"Well at least you have a job! I hate you and everything about you! Why can't you defend yourself! What is all this crap anyways! All you do is fiddle around with computer stuff! That's not a real job!"

Officer Gomez picked up a wrench and threw it at one of the computers.

"GOMEZ! What are you doing! Get out of here!" Joey cried out. Gomez would ruin everything!

"I tried to help you fight those bullies! And you get me fired!" Gomez shouted. He punched the nearest computer monitor. The glass went into his hand and cut him multiple times.

"**[OBSCENITY]**, Oh my **[SPECIFIC DEITY]**! My Hand! Look what you have done!" Gomez stared at Joey, holding up his bleeding hand.

"Gomez! Get out of here!"

"NO!" Gomez shouted back.

Someone else walked into the room. It was Wally Mack.

"What the he-" He began to say, but Ex-Officer Gomez jumped at him. Wally dodged and ran down the hallway. Gomez swore and threw his empty vodka bottle. It hit the wall beside Wally Mack.

"You're Crazy man, I'm going to get you put in jail!" Wally Mack shouted, pulling out a gun.

"NO!" Gomez charged at him. As soon as he left the room, Joey pushed the emergency seal on the door panel. The vault door shut and locked from the inside.

Outside, he heard a gunshot and then what sounded like a body falling to the floor.

"Get out here!" Wally Mack shouted.

"Uh… NO! I can't!" Gomez shouted back.

"Why not!" Wally Mack shouted.

"Uh… Oh shoot, The water chip is breaking!"

"What!" Wally Mack shouted.

"THE WATER CHIP IS BREAKING, GET THE OVERSEER" Joey cried out.

Wally Mack stayed where he was. Joey cut the wire. An alarm went off. A voice on the speaker said "Warning, Water Chip is broken, Please evacuate"

Wally Mack ran away.

Joey stayed in the room. At 2 PM, The overseer arrived. Joey showed him the damage.

From Allen Mack's unscientific pint of view, the damage looked completely plausible and in no way a sabotage. A vault wide evacuation was called into place.

Everyone was called to the main room. Joey used the confusion to hide in his apartment. He knew that by the time everyone had evacuated, no one would care to look for him. And then he could shut the vault door behind everyone else.


	9. Chapter 9

LIFE IN A VAULT ,CHAPTER 9

Joey hid in his room with his toolkit. The evacuation process was under way. He was safe here.

He heard people shouting in the main room. He mentally blocked it out. But he could still hear some things.

Ex-Officer's Gomez's wife was shouting "Where's my husband?"

Amata was crying. She had become an alcoholic after Butch's death.

The overseer shot several shots into the air at one point to quiet everyone down. Evacuating roughly two hundred people was a difficult task.

But Joey knew no one would care to look for him. No one would miss him. As soon as the doors were closed, he would fix the water chip, and fix the machinery just enough to let him live in peace.

The door to his apartment opened. Joey looked up. He was in his destroyed bedroom. Who was in his room?

The bedroom door opened. Wally Mack walked in.

"So, look who it is, whimpy weak Joey, trying to stay behind because he's scared of the wasteland" Wally said.

"Get out my room, Wally!" Joey shouted.

"Why? No one's going to miss you, it looks like your trying to stay behind on purpose, so I figured… why not just kill you, It wont make a big difference" Wally smiled.

Joey looked at him.

"You can't kill… you can't kill me, what did I ever do to you?" Joey asked, beginning to tremble.

"You exist" Wally said. He laughed and pulled out his gun.

"NO!" Joey jumped at him and hit him in the chest. They both fell to the floor. Joey was on top of him.

He began to punch him in the face. Wally Mack quickly pushed him off. He stood up and kicked Joey in the ribs. "I always kick you in the ribs…. Its kind of funny" Wally said.

"What's your problem!" Joey cried out.

"I'm going to kill you now" Wally said. He spat on Joey, and then went to pick up his gun.

Joey saw his tool kit. He only had a couple seconds. Wally picked up his gun.

Joey grabbed the tool kit and got to his feet, swinging the tool kit at the same time.

Wally shot just as the toolkit hit him in the side of the face.

The bullet missed Joey and hit a picture of Joey's face. Wally Mack fell onto Joey's bed from the force of the tool kit. Joey brought the toolkit down on Wally's head.

Wally Screamed in pain.

Joey was about to hit him again when the toolkit broke open and a bunch of his tools fell out.

Wally looked up at him , his face bloodied up.

Joey laughed, picked up a screw driver, and stabbed Wally Mack in the eye with it. He then violated Wally Mack's mouth the pliers , hit him a few times with a hammer, and broke all his teeth with a wrench.

Wally Mack was dead.

Joey looked at his work. This was the first time he murdered someone intentionally.

The voices down stairs seemed to have quieted down.

Shoot! He thought to himself. I have to seal the vault door!

Joey ran out of his apartment and down to the lower levels. It was empty.

He followed the tunnels to the main entrance, the vault door. It was open. He ran over to the controls.

He looked at the password. He changed it to "Amata" using his vault tech skills.

He then pushed the button to close the door. Up ahead in the cave, a few people turned around.

The evacuation had not fully left the cave!

A few vault dwellers ran to the entrance.

"HEY! DON'T CLOSE THAT!" They screamed. But then the vault door shut. It was 4 PM.

The vault was empty. Everyone was outside, except for Joey. Joey felt good. He could not hear peoples screams from through the vault door to let them in. At some point, the overseer tried the password to open the door, but it had been changed.

Joey felt good. He smiled smugly. Then , he heard a loud rumbling noise. Almost like… a muted explosion.

He felt the entire vault rumble. He heard a loud noise. Whatever was on the other side was bad. But it couldn't reach him.


	10. Chapter 10

LIFE IN A VAULT CHAPTER 10 *FINAL CHAPTER*

Joey stopped paying attention to the time. With no one else in the vault, it seemed pointless to keep track of days or weeks or months. Life was good now. He moved into the best home available in the vault, fixed the not broken water chip and had all his physical needs met. He felt at peace, he was happier this way then at any point in his life. He even stopped caring or worrying about that large noise he had heard after sealing the vault.

In total, he had been living on his own for a week.

One day, he was wandering through the halls, wandering if he should eat something or mix the different medications in the clinic. He turned the corner and heard something. Something in the room ahead.

He heard a plate drop to the floor and break. Someone was inside the vault with him!

He saw a wrench on the floor. He picked it up and walked slowly towards the room, prepared to deal with whatever was in there. He looked inside the room.

There was a large figure in there. Some sort of humanoid shaped robot!

It looked like a man, but way larger, with steel skin and robotized joints. Joey did not know what to do. This thing looked very strong. He dropped his wrench.

It made a loud noise when it hit the ground. Joey nearly wet himself. The robot turned around.

Its face looked like a large upgraded gas mask. It had a rifle swung over its shoulder and a large pistol strapped to its side. They stared at each other.

"Joey!" it said in a voice that sounded like something on the radio.

Joey screamed.

"Joey stop! Its me, The Lone Wanderer!" The robot said.

Joey screamed again.

The robot put up its hand as if to shush him, and then it put its hands on its neck. It turned his head, and then lifted it off. Joey screamed again. It took off its head, and Joey stared at the Lone Wanderer's face, the man who had abandoned the fault with Liam Neeson.

"You!" Joey shouted.

"Yes, its me, Joey… how are you alive!" The lone Wanderer asked.

"What?" Joey asked, confused.

"How are you alive! The others… they're dead outside the vault, some sort of evacuation!"

"Dead?… how… how did you get in! the door was sealed!" Joey asked in shock.

"I got Amata's message, where is she? She said she changed the vaults password to Amata" The Lone Wanderer said.

"What… no… I changed the password… when did Amata send out a distress signal?"

"Just over a week ago, around 1PM" The Lone Wanderer explained.

"But I changed the password…" Joey thought for a second. He had not actually checked what the previous password was.

"I don't believe they are dead!" He said.

"Come with me, I'll show you" The lone wanderer said. He let Joey to the entrance. Before leaving the vault, he made Joey put on a radiation suit ,"It's a little messed up out there" and they left the vault.

The cave was dark, so The Lone Wanderer turned on a flashlight built into his suit.

The lone wanderer pushed open the doorway. The bright lights outside nearly blinded Joey, but after a few seconds his eyes adjusted. He looked around. He was on a cliff, and in front of him was a huge dark green cloud. His pip-boy began to beep. This place was very radioactive. He looked around.

There were bodies everywhere. Each one had a vault jumpsuit on, or was a skeleton. Some of the people had peeling skin and looked incredibly sick. Joey looked over the cliff. There were skeletons and bones and piles of ash all over the floor. "What happened here?" Joey asked.

"I don't know, I need to know when and why the evacuation occurred" The Lone Wanderer asked.

"Well, when I kicked everyone out… at about 4PM… I guess a week ago, I heard a loud noise from behind the vault door, right as I sealed it" Joey explained.

"A WEEK AGO!" The Lone Wanderer asked, frightened.

"yes… why?"

"Oh god… that's when I destroyed Megaton" He said.

"Megaton?" Asked Joey.

"An evil city, built outside the vault, full of scum and bad people getting in the way of the future" Explained the Lone Wanderer.

"So you killed them all" asked Joey, startled by this news.

"It had to be done… and I guess the timing was just terrible" The Lone Wanderer said.

Joey saw Allen Macks body. He tried to laugh, but he felt sickened.

"So , I have a question, how did you survive , why didn't you evacuate?"

"Well… uh… I …I pretended to break the water chip because I didn't want to live in the fault anymore… it was just terrible … and I sort of locked everyone out… right as ….the explosion occurred" Joey explained sheepishly. The lone Wanderer stared at him.

With his helmet on, it was tough to figure out how he felt.

"You are an evil person Joey, you have destroyed hundreds of lives" He said.

"I hated it down there! No one respected me! The new Overseer was ruining everyone's lives!" Joey cried out.

The lone Wanderer pulled out his pistol from his belt.

"You killed all the people in Megatown or whatever!" Joey cried.

The Lone Wanderer raised and aimed his gun.

Joey began to shake and sweat. Time seemed to slow down. In the last moment, Joey cried out

"I've murdered one person and I can do it again!" and he jumped forward at the Lone Wanderer.

What Joey expected was to at least knock the Lone wanderer off his balance. But the Lone wanderer just grabbed him with his free hand and lifted him up. He was incredibly strong. Joey tried to kick him in the crotch. His foot hit the armor and broke his toe.

The Lone Wanderer lifted up his gun and brought the butt of it down on Joey's helmet, breaking his radioactive suit's protection around his face. He then lifted Joey high and threw him to the ground.

He fell on all fours, and crawled away. His foot was in terrible pain. The Lone wanderer kicked him in the ribs. This was no whimpy kick from Wally Mack. Joey was lifted in the air and thrown to the side from the force of the kick. The kick broke all his ribs on one side. Joey tried to crawl.

He had landed on a pile of bodies. Vault 101 jumpsuits were all around him. In front of him, he saw Amata's corpse.

"NO!" He cried out. He pulled her over and hugged her.

Behind him he heard loud crunching footsteps. They stopped behind him.

He thought he heard the Lone Wanderer whisper "Amata" but he was uncertain.

The Lone Wanderer lifted his pistol and shot Joey in the back of the head.

Joey fell over dead, holding on to Amata's corpse.

The Lone Wanderer picked up Joey's body and dragged him away from Amata's and over to the cliff.

He looked briefly at the **SCENIC OVERLOOK** sign, and then threw Joey over the edge.


End file.
